To avoid writing anything of substance...

In descending order of release:

David Lynch's digital epic, Inland Empire (which still hasn't come to Saint Louis, or perhaps, never will), will hit the shelves from Rhino Entertainment on the 8th of June. Rumor has it that it will be the first Lynch DVD to feature a commentary, but no specifics have been mentioned officially yet. The film stars Lynch regulars Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, Grace Zabriskie, Diane Ladd, as well as Jeremy Irons, Julia Ormond, and Nastassja Kinski.

On the 15th of May, New Line will release Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, which has become the highest grossing Spanish-language film in the United States as of last week, in a Platinum Edition will plenty of dorked-out features.

As I mentioned prior, the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky will be released by Anchor Bay on the 1st of May. It looks as if Anchor Bay will be releasing the three titles (El topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando & Lis) separately, as well as in a box, but this, too, has yet to be confirmed. Also on this day comes Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy, a surely unnecessary documentary about Matthew Barney, and the ho-hum Dreamgirls.

Criterion's sub-studio, Eclipse, will have seven documentaries by Louis Malle out on the 24th of March. Lionsgate, just after their acquisition of a large sum of Studio Canal titles, will have three early films of Jean Renoir out the same day. Also on the 24th: Little Children, Volver, Panic in Needle Park, and Tears of the Black Tiger (a Thai pulp film which one of my professors described as a 'pad thai western.' I don't recommend the film, by the way).

As stated before, Criterion will release Mathieu Kassovitz's La haine on the 17th of April. Also out that day: Screen Door Jesus and Bye Bye Brazil.

On the 8th of April, Koch Lorber will release two contemporary French films that never made it to the theatre stateside. Le petit lieutenant is a crime thriller from actor/director Xavier Beauvois, starring Jalil Lespert, Roschdy Zem, and Nathalie Baye who won a César, the French equivalent of an Oscar, for her role. Philippe Grandrieux's Sombre, literally Dark, is another nasty, bleak French film starring Elina Lowensohn (Nadja). Robert Altman's A Wedding will also be released, outside of the Altman box, on this date.

Wolfe Video will be releasing Thom Fitzgerald's 3 Needles on the 3rd of April. The film, which sounds like an HIV-positive Babel from the director of The Hanging Garden, stars Lucy Liu, Shawn Ashmore (X-Men), Olympia Dukakis, Sandra Oh, Sook Yin-Lee, Stockard Channing, and Chloë Sevigny as a nun in South Africa. Also bowing on this date: Alfonso Cuarón's apocalyptic masterpiece Children of Men, Manoel de Oliveira's The Convent (with Catherine Deneuve and John Malkovich), a new, feature-less edition of Freeway, The Last King of Scotland, and the second season of Twin Peaks (without the first season or pilot).

On the 27th of March, several smaller titles will become available, including Kim Ki-duk's (3-Iron, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, The Isle) latest, The Bow, Claude Chabrol's The Bridesmaid (La demoiselle d'honneur) with Benoit Magimel, Candy with Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish, Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower with Gong Li, El Cortez with Lou Diamond Phillips, Joe D'Amato's Emanuelle Around the World, Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd, the Russ Meyer homage, Pervert!, with Mary Carey, Béla Tarr's eight-hour Sátántangó, and Eclipse's first box-set: The Early Films of Ingmar Bergman.

On the 20th of March, Wellspring will bring us Joey Lauren Adams' directorial debut, Come Early Morning, starring Ashley Judd, who's apparently wonderful in the film, recalling her finest work in Victor Nunez's Ruby in Paradise. Also on that day, a limited edition of Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator, Jules Dassin's The Naked City, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, and Blood Diamond.

The 13th of March will have the latest James Bond film, Casino Royale, from Sony, on your shelves. Alain Resnais' Muriel will also be released from Koch Lorber on the same day, as well as John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus.

The cult classic Night of the Comet will be arriving on the 6th of March from MGM, as well as Sacha Baron Cohen's box office smash Borat: Cultural Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Also bowing on that day, Charles Jarrott's notoriously awful The Other Side of Midnight, starring Susan Sarandon, the German possession drama Requiem, and Hong Sang-soo's Woman Is the Future of Man.

As for the rest of February, here's a list of DVDs you should at least consider renting.

13 February: Géla Bubluani's 13 (Tzameti), The Apprentice with Susan Sarandon, the Criterion reissue Bicycle Thieves, Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy, Martin Scorsese's The Departed, Yilmaz Arslan's Fratricide, Federico Fellini's Ginger & Fred, Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson, Constantine Giannaris' Hostage, Infamous, Tony Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Andre Bujalski's Mutual Appreciation, Nicolas Roeg's Performance, Mikio Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, and Christophe Ali and Nicolas Bonilauri's Wild Camp.

20 February: Martin Donovan's Apartment Zero, Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel, Jean-Marc Vallée's C.R.A.Z.Y., Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration (if you want to kick yourself afterward), Jan Svankmajer's Lunacy, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, and Michael J. Bassett's (Deathwatch) Wilderness.

27 February: The final cut of Oliver Stone's Alexander, an Early Hitchcock boxset, Henry Jaglom's Going Shopping, Lucio Fulci's Perversion Story, Terry Gilliam's Tideland, and Jean Genet's Un chant d'amour.